Stanford Ushers in the Age of Bookless Libraries

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The new Stanford engineering library was recently built and it will no longer house print journals or the 80,000 print books it previously held. The print book collection will contain about 10,000 items.

The reason for this change is that the engineering discipline is changing rapidly and print items aren't the best way to stay current in that field. Much of the research is best done with online journals and e-books. The library is responding to the needs of the engineering folks who use the library.

I don't think the age of the book-less library will be widespread. However, depending on the need of the user, the specific discipline, or the type of item, moving to e-items may make sense.

By the title of the NPR article, you would think book-less libraries were widespread.

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Social Media

The lecture and discussion about social media today in LIS 2600 was pretty good. The idea that these are tools a library can use to invite people into the community is a useful way to frame the topic. Many people use these tools, so the library ought to use them too. The result may be more people playing a role and being involved in the library community.

One of the examples that speaks to the success of building a community is the open source movement. The article "The Cathedral & the Bazaar" that we read in LIS 2000 describes why open source works and how the process incorporates the best in people when they are collaborating on topics they feel passionate about.

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